This past weekend we here at Trojan Archery sent a whopping 20 archers to the USA Archery 2018 Indoor National Championship. As strong as our team has been this season, we went on to break all expectations that we have set for ourselves. Though there were no team rating this time around, we had 12 archers who broke their personal bests (lovingly referred to as PB by our captains); some even breaking their PB multiple times! In addition to this, our compound team made a very strong debut for the season and we are excited to see their performance for the rest of the season. Check out the pictures from the tournament below; you’ll have to excuse the dead eyes in some of the photos, 8AM shooting time does no one justice.

National Indoor also officially marks the end of our team’s indoor season. As outdoor season involves shooting across significantly longer distances, this marks the end of the competitive seasons for many of our team members. To those who will not be continuing into the outdoor leg of the season, congratulation on your overwhelmingly positive indoor season, rest up, and train for next season. To those who are slated to compete in our outdoor competition, good luck and keep up your training!

Until next time, fellow Trojans: shoot on!

P.S. For those who have been inquiring about our “So You Want to Be an Archer” series, we had to to put it on hold for indoor season. We will resume adding posts to that series in the near future as our team members return to range for summer training.

First and foremost, let us at TrojanArchery.com apologize for our recent lack of activities and post. It’s not because we did nothing for two weeks–let’s be honest that’s a really long time to be mourning our lack of Valentine’s Day plan. Turns out our webmaster went full nerd mode to prepare for a science conference that he is currently attending. He sends his sincerest apologies.

Secondly, on a happier and less nerdy note, we are proud to announce that the First Annual (Potentially Semesterly?) Trojan Fundraiser 600 Round was a huge success. We had a great turn out that actually overflowed our original number of spots. Thankfully the administrative team of the Pasadena Roving Archery Range was able to help us adapt and accommodate the extra archers. On top of it all, some of our own competitive members placed in the tournament; shout out Laurel Paxton, Alex Aloia, Rob Campbell, and Henry Connor for the outstanding performance in their division. The overall result spread can be found here. All in all this is a great start to a new fundraising tradition for our club. Many thanks to those in the community who participated and all of the volunteers, both from the Trojan family as well as those of the PRA, for contributing their time and effort to our cause.

Finally, we would like to proudly announce a new addition to the Trojan Archery leadership: Rob Campbell has joined the dark cabal we call the Executive Board! He will be taking on the role of team captain for our barebow division. This marks the first time that we have ever had a formal barebow team headed by a captain. We are very excited to have Rob amongst the rank of our leadership and look forward to his fatherly rallying of the barebow team. Tic-tac-toe! Tic-tac-toe!

Until next time fellow Trojans, shoot on!

P.S. We also would like to wish you a belated Valentine’s Day and a Happy Lunar New Year. We’d make a post about it, but it’s not an official University holiday. So in lieu of an actual holiday post, we offer you a small glimpse into the aftermath of Valentine’s Day in a small town called Night Vale.

A common quandary we here at Trojan Archery encounters when teaching beginners–who all are introduced to archery through the barebow style–is how to teach them to aim. For shorter distances, the concept of “instinctive” aiming is straightforward; what you’re looking at is usually what you hit. However for longer distances, and especially with elevation changes akin to those in a field round, the answer of “instinctive” becomes a rather useless one.

Though some archers do develop the necessary instinct to aim across a wide range of distances and terrains, we find it more useful to formalize the less “mystical” aiming techniques used by barebow archers: gap aiming and string walking. We present below a short article written by our barebow Captain, Rob Campbell, on the topic of gap aiming and string walking.

Disclaimer: This information is only based on my limited knowledge and research acquired but I believe it all to be true. If anyone has any suggestions for more accurate information, please let me know.

There are three main types of barebow shooting in my opinion (there are many more but I think these are the main groups that can contain different subsection).

1. Gap method: the gap method uses a technique that I think every barebow archer starts with if you use the arrow tip to aim. When I aim at a target, I am aiming with the tip of my arrow at the ground and the gap that I create helps me hit the target.

2. Instinctive shooting: This method is sort of the ‘mystical’ way to shoot. It is said by many archers to take many years to develop and you only use your ‘instincts’ to hit the desired target.

3. String Walking: This method is for barebow archers that want to shoot point on. That means you use the tip of your arrow to aim directly in the middle of the target. By moving your finger tab down the string, you are creating the gap on your string rather than using your arrow as in the gap method.

In this message, I would like to explain a little about the String Walking method. String walking, when used in conjunction with a finely tuned plunger can allow the archer to put the tip of the arrow exactly on the target. By adjusting the position of the tab in a specific place on the bowstring, you move the nock of the arrow closer to your eye (you can also move it farther away from your eye for farther distances but that is another message). If you currently use the three-finger-under method, you are already ahead of the game. If you are using split finger, you will have to get used to closing your fingers and moving them under the nock.

The process begins with the right type of finger tab. You need to have a three-under tab with notches or stitches. The next step is data collection. By shooting at targets with various lengths you can figure out which specific stitch in your finger tab to adjust to. When you count down the stitches, you simply put your thumb on the stitch and move the tab down the string to the desired position. You will notice that the nock of the arrow moves closer to your eye. This will give you better point-on target accuracy that can eventually rival a sight using archer. As the distances of the target get shorter, the position away from the nock gets larger.

To test for left/right accuracy, you need to use and tune the plunger. First, shoot five arrows at a specific distance. If the arrows are drifting to the right, tighten the plunger ¼ turn. Re-check and adjust accordingly. If the arrows are in the target at an angle, the spring tensions must be adjusted. If the arrow is going in an arc to the left or the right with distance, the plunger position needs to be adjusted.

By tuning the plunger to perfection and learning the practice of string walking, we can bring home much more hardware in the competitions to come! To use this method, all you need is a three-finger-under tab with stitching and the time to practice.

Please note that our practice times have changed for the Spring 2018 semester. Please see below for the new times. The practice session page should reflect the same changes in practice times listed below

Due to changes in the schedule to accommodate intramural sports, we no longer have open practice on Wednesday. However, time slots on Wednesday will be used to hold instructional sessions to address things such as equipment, form, strength training for archery, and a myriad of other esoteric topics in archery. Please see our club announcement emails for more information on time and topics to be covered.

As our competition season ramps up, it is starting to feel like we here at Trojan Archery are simply trying to make it from one tournament to the next in one piece. To give all of our beloved readers a quick update, we sent a cadre of archers to the California State Indoor Championship two weekends ago. Though the numbers are a bit small this time around, we still managed to reach some noteworthy milestones. In particular, we’d like to congratulate our Most Highly Beloved President, Dan Kwasniewski, on an outstanding weekend. He broke some personal records on this one.

As we move away from California State Indoor, the team is now focusing our attention to the last indoor competition of our season: USA Archery National Indoor Championships. To that end, expect to see more posts about equipment, form, and techniques in the weeks to come as we work to help our archers improve and build our educational database. To keep yourself in the loop as our semester progresses, please sign-up for our mailing list and follow our Facebook page.

This past weekend, we here at Trojan Archery kicked off our 2018 competition season at the Southern California Collegiate Indoor Invitational at the Easton Archery Center for Excellence in Chula Vista.

For a lack of better words, it went off like gangbusters. Based on the point system used by the judges Trojan Archery was second in men’s recurve, third in women’s and men’s barebow, and fourth in women’s recurve. Congratulations to the members who took home individual awards this weekend.

In the mix of it all, we got to witness our own underdog story during the mixed team rounds. Believe us when we say that the journey to that bronze in mixed team was tumultuous. Since he tells it better than we can, here is Coach Jim’s recounting of events

In many ways, this is an incredible start for our competition season. This is the first time in our club history where we fielded a barebow team. It is also the first time in three years that Trojan Archery has taken home medals at a large competitive event. With the success of this competition in our belt, we will keep pushing ourselves to improve, bring home more victories throughout the rest of this season, and confuse more people with our non sequitur team chants. Check out the photos below.

Many thanks to all of the competitive members for their strong showing at the shoot, our coaching staff: Terri, Jim, and Brian, and all those who have been cheering us on and supporting the club through its rebuilding.

Until next time, fellow Trojans: shoot on and save the bees!

P.S. Our competition eason is only just starting we would greatly appreciate your support of the club. To donate to our competitive team, please check out our crowdfunding page at the link below.

As a part of our fundraising effort for this competition season, Trojan Archery is hosting a tournament, and we want you (YES, YOU!) to participate and spread the word! The tournament will be held on Sunday, February 4th at the Pasadena Roving Archers Main Range. The registration is $30 and will go towards helping our competitive team cover the cost of travel and lodging for the 2018 competition season.

The shoot will be two scoring 300 rounds at 18m for Olympic recurve, barebow, and compound with four divisions in each style (male/female, adult/youth). For more information and to register for the event, please follow the link below

If you are unable to participate in the tournament, but would still like to donate and contribute to our fundraising effort, please visit our Ignite page (link below). The campaign runs until January 20th and we would greatly appreciate any and all contributions.